Chapter 21
Crimson Liquid
Cedar
I found myself back in Raiden’s office, my raven flapping his wings inside my mind, eager to escape and not feel anything right now. However, that wasn’t an option just yet. Soon, but not yet.
Leaned back in a high-back black velvet chair, I could see everyone seated around me.
Which was good since I was getting the full story of all the things I’d missed while spending what apparently amounted to five full moon cycles trapped in a dungeon, avoiding patches of sun, starving to near death, and being drugged and beaten—mentally and physically.
My counting had been off by at least three, which was disturbing in itself.
Dark blue eyes and brunette waves of hair flashed into my mind and I found myself fidgeting while I pushed the images of her beneath me mere hours ago from my mind. Now was not the time. It was never the time for her to be bombarding my mind, but she never ceased to stop.
If I was busy doing anything, it should be trying to figure out a way to break this infernal bond she’d latched us into.
Logically, if I stopped drinking her Fates-forsaken blood, it would fade.
It had with Silvana and I after a few moon cycles.
However, the thought of not having her again brought pain to my mind.
My fingers grazed over my bottom lip, my thoughts lost in a sea of madness.
“Cedar?” a soft voice said from next to me.
My eyes slid upward and met a dark chocolate set that were a few shades lighter than my own.
A set of eyes that always spoke of a soft understanding and kindness most of us in this room weren’t accustomed too, let alone felt ourselves.
Allie was a rare type of woman, special.
Soft, but not in a delicate way. Just in a way that spoke of her heart.
She reminded me a great deal of Florence. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
I found myself nodding before I could even think to not lie to her. No, I wasn’t okay. But we didn’t have time for me to be having female issues right now, so my feelings would have to wait.
Thankfully, none of the others had noticed her questioning my state of mind.
She was seated on the couch that sat closest to the chair I resided in.
Bastian next to her, his hand on her knee, Micah on the other side of him filling out the rest of the couch.
Raiden sat behind his desk, the dark wood appearing darker as his shadows slid around the piece of furniture and onto the floor.
I watched as his magic swirled around Silvana’s feet as she paced the length of the room—as if it were begging someone to come near her so he could demolish them in a pile of bone dust.
My eyes fell down from those around me and onto the glass goblet in my hand. The blood in it swirled and I watched as the color ebbed as I turned it one way to the other.
“I’ve given them a brief rundown. Oren is alive, Keres has an Esoti in his circle, and Cora is a witch,” Raiden announced as he sent a few more shadows up Silvana’s thighs. “Micah, did you pick up anything?”
I glanced over at the empath, his ashy blond hair disheveled and his green eyes bright as he looked around at us from the couch next to Bastian.
“Nothing out of the ordinary, Raiden. I know you’re looking for some sort of ill feelings or murderous thoughts, but there are none.
She was nervous, tired, anxious, but there was a small amount of hope as we headed up the stairs and she saw her room. ”
“Probably grateful her room was better than the treatment I’d received,” I muttered, but everyone except Silvana ignored me.
I felt her icy eyes dig into me as I leaned back in my chair, setting my chin in my hand, as I perfected the look of pure boredom.
As if I didn’t care how displeased she was with my attitude.
“Anyway,” Silvana growled as her eyes returned to Micah. “That’s a good sign, right?”
Micah glanced over at Bastian as he rubbed Micah’s thigh with his free hand.
“Like with any mind magic Ice Sickle, some people are able to put up a front or hide parts of themselves from magic like Micah’s. Cedar is a stellar example. Micah’s never been able to get a solid read on him and how he’s feeling. Raiden either,” Bastian explained.
I felt Silvana’s eyes searing back into me, but I, once again, ignored her. “Why is that?” she questioned.
Micah shrugged. “Some people are just better at hiding their emotions than others. It took me almost a century to be able to pick up anything from Raiden, and it was more due to tells than actual magic. With Cedar I get bits and pieces. I know he’s angry right now, attempting to project boredom, but I can tell he’s burying quite a bit. I’m just not sure what that is.”
The mental walls inside of my soul shook. I had no idea I’d been able to bury and hide anything from Micah. I always just assumed he stayed out of my head due to respect. Apparently that wasn’t the case.
“Her threads are bright,” Allie chimed in from the other side of Bastian. She was leaning in the corner of the couch, her legs pulled up underneath her as she listened. Raiden sighed and Silvana smiled. “It means that she’s supposed to be here, I think,” she added with a small smile.
I bit back the scoff that I almost let loose. I knew Allie meant well, but Cora was simply here because I owed her my life and wanted my best friend to be happy. Fate wasn’t involved with shit.
“Cedar, how did Oren seem, truly?” Raiden questioned.
I didn’t look up. I didn’t feel I needed to, although logically I should’ve. Respect was important. Clearing my throat, I tried to formulate a response for the ruler of the Court of Shadows.
“He spoke to me. Remembered you and Paine well. Fuck, he even remembers Silvana and I from the work we’d done within his court.
” My gaze rose to meet Silvana’s and I found her staring at me from across the room.
We still hadn’t gotten to speak with one another.
I knew we would eventually, but now didn’t seem to be the time for that either.
“He knew about Vega and the venom they spiked in the blood. I have no true idea how long he’d been there though. ”
I swirled the crimson liquid around the cup again before I thought of one other thing.
“He said you and Paine were smarter males than he,” I said, my eyes returning to Raiden’s.
“Keres wants all of Kostbare for himself and he planned to use The Eternal Outcasts as a way to somehow get his armies into the other three courts. From what I gathered over our conversations, he hit Oren first, and hard. He asked Keres for help, and instead of help, he got… well, you know what he got.”
The room went silent as everyone took in the information. It wasn’t normal for the rulers of courts to be taken like this. They were strong, powerful, intelligent—it was why they ruled.
“So who is ruling over the Court of Wolves?” Silvana asked, her hands on her hips as she looked over at Raiden and then back to me. As if I suddenly had all the answers.
I chuckled at the absurdity of it. “Silv, what do you think they did? Fed me information in hopes I’d trade them some?
They spent any amount of time in my cell torturing me with mental magic—reliving my worst memories, frying my brain like an egg, lighting me on fire!
I’ve told you every single thing that was said to me.
I know nothing else.” My heart racing, my hand clutching the goblet in my hand as if it were the only thing tying me to this plane of existence.
“Cedar…” she began, but I shook my head and downed the blood in my glass. It tasted like a dead animal, which just went to say how far gone I was if everything that wasn’t from her tasted like shit.
“Don’t, Silv. Just… don’t. I’m sorry I snapped.
I wish I could be more helpful. I would love to tell everyone I figured out the mystery that is that psycho holed up in the Court of Ice as if he has a right to reside there, when you and Cora probably have more of a claim to the throne than he does, but I just don’t know anything.
” I leaned back in the chair again, the bitter taste from the blood and lashing out at the only person to ever be there for me mixing together on the back of my tongue.
“Has anyone thought to ask Cora?” Micah questioned, interrupting the tense silence that had permeated the room.
When no one responded, he continued. “I only mean to say, she’s the only one with her memory intact that has been there.
Lived there for… well, we don’t even know how long. Over a hundred years at the least.”
“Why would she tell us anything?” Raiden replied in question.
“Well she may not, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask the questions. I’d suggest Silvana speaks with her first. Maybe getting back into touch with her long-lost sister may help soften her up to wanting to help us,” Micah suggested.
I could tell that Raiden hated the idea—anything that would put his mate in any sort of potential danger set him on edge, but I also knew my best friend wouldn’t let any of that stop her if she decided she wanted to speak with her sister.
“I’ve been wanting to talk to her anyway, I just… I didn’t want to intrude and I assumed she’d want to rest before I bombarded her with questions about… everything.”
“Bring your blades,” Raiden mumbled, his onyx eyes never leaving her. She walked over and gave him a brief kiss.
“I’m not going to kill my sister, My Lord,” she replied.
“Why? Cedar attempted it. She can’t be all that great,” Raiden said darkly.
Her icy eyes whipped to me, wide and alarmed. “You tried to kill my sister? What the fuck for?”
Her pale curves pressed to the stone wall, blood filling my mouth as her screams filled my ears.
“She annoyed me,” I muttered. “Have you made any headway with the list of names I left?” I asked, changing the subject away from the female vampire upstairs.